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Dorian and Charlee on their wedding day (Picture: PA Real Life/ Joshua Butler)

Instead of a traditional white dress and a wedding cake, Dorian Yuste, 43, and his partner Charlie, 34, had a three day Viking wedding, complete with blood offerings and a hog roast.

On 18 May 2019, they exchanged vows in a ceremony conducted by a painted pagan priest at their home in San Antonio, Texas, USA.

Dorian: ‘We tried to make our service as true to a proper Viking marriage ceremony as possible – going back 1,000 years in time.

‘There was a magic to it that we never would have got from a normal Christian wedding.’

Dorian wrote an apostasy letter – or formal renouncement of his faith – to the Pope in 2017 when he embraced paganism.

He explained: ‘As a young man, my grandmother had wanted me to enter a seminary to become a Catholic priest – but it was never life I wanted for myself and I wrote to the Vatican a few years ago with my apostasy letter.

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‘When I discovered the old religion of the Vikings in 2011, through some friends who were into paganism, I felt like I’d found my people, but the idea that we are all hippies is totally wrong.

Guests at the wedding feast (Picture: PA Real Life/ Joshua Butler)

‘I still love my credit card, my TV and my laptop and we spent $2,600 (£2,050) on all of the clothing, food and tables for our wedding – but I also appreciate the values of the pagan religion, which place an emphasis on nature and feeling at one with the planet. And that’s exactly how we wanted our wedding.’

Both regulars at medieval reenactment festivals around the country too, Dorian and Charlee met for the first time in March 2018 at the Sherwood Forest Faire in McDade, Texas, where visitors come dressed in historical outfits and enjoy spectacles including jousts and sword fighting.

Charlee, then based in Houston, Texas, approached Dorian as she was attracted by his long flowing locks and 6ft 4in stature.

A medievalist since college, when she studied the art of the middle ages, she recalled: ‘Often at these reenactments people are pretending to be someone else.

‘But what really drew me to Dorian is that he was so genuine. We got on really well immediately and from that moment I knew that I wanted to be with him.’

Three weeks later, Charlee moved into Dorian’s home with her son, Harrison, two, to live with him and his daughter Coco, from a previous relationship.

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They decided to get married on 18 May 2019, on the full moon, known as the Flower Moon – a symbol of growth and new life.

Dorian explained: ‘We had a civic marriage in October, so that we would be married in the eyes of the law.

‘But there was no question that we were going to have a Viking wedding, which would have much more of an emotional resonance than any official ceremony could do.’

Hosting the wedding in the garden of their home, the couple invited their 44 guests – who mostly comprised of friends from the pagan community – over on Friday 17 May for the start of the three-day celebration, kicking things off with a meal.

The following day when Dorian, wearing furs, and Charlee, dressed in a simple lavender dress, along with their guests, congregated at dusk by an oak tree to begin a ceremony, according to the ancient rites of the Norse pagans.

Conducted by their friends Sean Finlay, 49, and Lorraine Richardson, 52, – their priest and priestess for the day – the nuptials were initiated by an “opening of the ceremonial circle” by pouring alcohol on the ground as an offering to invite in the various Norse gods worshipped by the religion.

After singing an old Norwegian song to commemorate dead family members and friends not present, the couple exchanged vows and had their hands fasted together with rope – a pre-Christian marriage ritual that was practised throughout northern Europe during the time of the Vikings.

Guest at the wedding (Picture: PA Real Life/ Joshua Butler)

Lorraine, an old friend of Dorian through work, then concluded the wedding by closing the ceremonial circle.

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‘It was perfect,’ said Charlee, whose son Harrison, along with Dorian’s daughter Coco, brought the couple their wedding bands at the end of the service.

The newlyweds and their guests then sat down at a specially-made long wooden table for a feast of spit roasted goat and wild boar, which the groom had himself hunted on the land around his property.

Washing down the cooked meat with draughts of mead – an alcoholic drink of yore made from honey – the revellers celebrated late into the night, before resuming their pagan rituals once the full moon had risen.

Dorian recalled: ‘We were all quite tipsy by the time night fell and we almost forgot.

‘But someone saw the moon rising above the clouds, which reminded us that we had to do a second ceremony under the Flower Moon.’

The couple were then bound together by a blood offering – using a small blade, they both made small cuts on their hands, first dripping the blood onto the ground and then clasping their wounds together, mingling their blood.

Commenting on the gory practice, Charlee laughed: ‘It sounds pretty crazy, but the cuts were only small.

‘After that everyone went back to making merry and we sat around the fire until the small hours telling stories and enjoying each other’s company.